Freelance Balancing Act

"A common workday scenario for me has been this: walking my daughter to preschool, running back home to write, picking her up, buying food for dinner on the way home, cooking and eating together as a family, and then tucking her in before working on deadline alongside my partner (also self-employed) till midnight or 1am. Am I sometimes exhausted or time-crunched or anxious about money? Hell, yes. But I also spend a good amount of time pinching myself for being able to be so present for my daughter while still making ends meet."

Recently I posted something -- I can't remember what the context was -- but in it I said that I didn't want Wally to fall asleep in the stroller in the afternoon. It occurred to me later that maybe that didn't make sense to most people. Why not let a kid fall asleep? Isn't a sleeping kid always easier than one who's awake? Yes - but a kid sleeping at 5 in the afternoon giving you that peaceful walk home from the grocery or playground means a wide-awake kid pole vaulting in the living-room at 10. (There are some parents who say even a 5 o'clock nap doesn't have a negative outcome for bedtime for their kids but I just don't get that! Then again Wally often turns down dessert and I just don't get that either.)

So, anyway, if Wally falls asleep in the late afternoon, that means I won't get him down 'til late, and that means I won't get the work done I need to get done after he goes to sleep, and the whole house of cards of a freelance sort-of-stay-at-home-mom life just comes crashing down. It's so tenuous. But so worth it. (And most nights I don't have to work nearly as late as that woman. Although maybe I should start. I'd certainly get more done.)